Vehicles are increasingly incorporating tire pressure monitoring systems. Tire pressure monitoring systems are systems configured to receive messages from sensors associated with each tire on a vehicle. The sensors are configured to detect characteristics of the associated tire such as tire pressure, temperature, wear, etc. The detected characteristics are communicated in the message to the tire pressure monitoring system for analysis and communication to a user.
In most tire pressure monitoring systems, each sensor is associated with a specific identifier. The specific identifier is included in all messages transmitted from that sensor so that the tire pressure monitoring system can determine the origin of the message. Identification is necessary because messages are often transmitted wirelessly and it is difficult to detect the origin of the message without the specific identifier. The origin is important because messages may be received from sensors other than those associated with tires on the vehicle. For example, a wireless message may be received from a tire sensor on a vehicle parked next to the intended vehicle.
Accordingly, it may be desirable to configure the tire pressure monitoring system to recognize the identifiers for the tires on the vehicle. Further, the tire pressure monitoring system may be configured to recognize not only the identifiers for tires on the vehicle, but also their location on the vehicle. Accordingly, it may also be desirable to configure the tire pressure monitoring system to recognize a location for each identifier.
However, configuring the tire pressure monitoring system to recognize the identifiers and/or their location may be a difficult task. In training the system, a user is often required to check a display mounted inside a vehicle to find out which tire is to be trained. The user then forces the sensor for that tire to transmit its identifier by standing next to the tire and actuating the sensor to transmit. The user must then go into the vehicle and check the display to determine whether the training was successful. If not, the user must again return to the sensor to actuate transmission from the sensor again and repeat the process. Further, this process must be repeated for each tire to be trained.
Accordingly, what is needed is a tire pressure monitoring system configured to provide an external indication to a user indicating which tire is to be trained. What is further needed is such a tire pressure monitoring system configured to provide an external indication whether training was successful. The teachings hereinbelow extend to those embodiments which fall within the scope of the detailed description, regardless of whether they accomplish one or more of the above-mentioned needs.